


All That Matters

by joannakth



Category: The Avengers (2012)
Genre: Bruce Banner Feels, Bruce-centric fic, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-06-02
Updated: 2013-06-02
Packaged: 2017-12-13 17:11:28
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 709
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/826756
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/joannakth/pseuds/joannakth
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>He’s still angry. Angry at the world, angry with himself, angry with the other guy. He still hates himself. </p><p>But he loves the people he’s with. And maybe that’s all that matters.</p>
            </blockquote>





	All That Matters

Bruce used to think it would be better if he were detached. The farther away from society, the better. The secret was of course that he was always angry but when he was far away it was easier to channel into other things. Sure he was angry – angry at the world, at the poverty and the sickness and squalor that no one actually seemed to care about. But if he was removed he could control it, he could pour it into trying to help fix it.

So when Tony came up to him about three weeks into his stay at the Stark Tower, excited and eager, with his arms laden with blue prints he had been hesitant.

It wasn’t that he didn’t want to live with the Avengers. He had no problem with his teammates, in fact he was pretty fond of them. He hadn’t gotten a chance to see Thor since the whole Loki situation, but he’d met with others a few times since and they’d all been quirky, but perfectly lovely in their own way. And he and Tony had been good friends from the start.

But New York? Permanently? It was nice for a month of playing in Stark Tower but actually living here? It is probably the least conducive city to anger management in the world. Everyone is always on top of one another, pushing and rushing and being generally rude. It’s hard to be detached with all that noise in your ears. And there isn’t exactly a large population of starving, poverty stricken people in midtown that he can pour his energy into.

But Tony gave him the same look he gave him on the plane, when he told him his life was worth something, and said “It isn’t exactly Calcutta, but I thought you’d like it. Plus the other guy saved my life a couple of times, so I figure I at least owe you room and board at this point,” and he crumbled pretty easily.  The other guy has always seemed to like Tony and Bruce has always been a little bit of a pushover so he shouldn’t have really been surprised.

Within a year after that, the tower is finished and all the Avengers are settled in their new home and they’re fighting crime on a regular basis and co-habitating between that and it’s utter chaos.

Clint refuses to use the training area and is always scaling furniture and shooting arrows over his head. Thor has managed to accidentally fry the cable satellite dish at least four times now. Natasha sleep walks and frankly – it’s creepy. Steve has managed to dye five of his white shirts pink in the wash. And Tony always drinks the last cup of coffee before Bruce can even get down to the kitchen. Everything, even down to going to the grocery store or making dinner, is a production. A production that involves a lot of yelling, some form of weaponry being used to threaten someone else, and occasionally tears (usually of the crocodile variety, if you ask Bruce).

But then sometimes one of them will get injured in a battle and the other five will spend the rest of the week in their part of the tower, making them food and telling them jokes and being generally entertaining. And sometimes Steve will come down to the lab when he and Tony have been working for way too long and put a carafe of coffee and some food on a table between them. And sometimes Thor and Steve’s confusion with 21st century Midguardian electronics is just hilarious. And sometimes they’ll all curl up on the couch together and have ‘let’s educate Steve and Thor on the past seventy years in pop culture-athons’ until four in the morning, where in his teammates have fallen asleep on his shoulder as if he weren’t a ticking time bomb many a time. And well, more than sometimes – actually closer to all the time, there’s someone to talk to, something to laugh over, and somebody to lean on.

And he’s still angry. Angry at the world, angry with himself, angry with the other guy. He still hates himself.

But he loves the people he’s with. And maybe that’s all that matters. 


End file.
